THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[00:00:00] WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Jake, I understand the president of the United States has weighed in on what's going on right now?

JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: Well, we're anticipating something along those lines, Wolf, and in fact, let's go to the White House right now where Michelle Kosinski is standing by. Michelle, what can you tell us?

MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Jake. We just got this statement in right now. As expected, it is not yet, at least, an endorsement of Hillary Clinton, and to read it, it explains why. This is guidance. This is the President reaching out to both sides, and maybe a little bit more than expected. Here's what it started out saying. Tonight, President Obama called both Secretary Clinton and Senator Sanders. The President congratulated both candidates for running inspiring campaigns that have energized Democrats, brought a new generation of Americans into the political process, and shined a spotlight on important policy ideas aimed at making sure our economy and politics work for everybody and not just those with wealth and power. SO the President is congratulating Secretary Clinton for securing the delegates necessary. He is calling it a historic campaign inspired by millions and inspiring millions, and he is also thanking Senator Sanders, according to this statement, for energizing millions of Americans with his commitment to issues like fighting economic inequality.

So at the end, it says that Senator Sanders, at his request, is going to meet with the President at the White House on Thursday. It says that they will continue their conversation about the significant issues at stake in this election that matter most to America's working families. And he says, the President looks forward to continuing the conversation, how to build on the work he has done. Obviously, after that point, then comes the endorsement that everybody has been waiting for. I mean, it's kind -- the worst kept secret in Washington, not even a secret. It's just sort of something you can't report on up until now at the very end. So what the White House has been saying when they have been asked repeatedly by us, you know, why not now? What exactly are you waiting for? Why wouldn't you endorse Hillary Clinton even as early as yesterday? And they said, this is about respect. It's about respecting the process. But also when you look at President Obama about to now go out on the trail full bore for Hillary Clinton, he doesn't want to alienate those staunch Sanders supporters, far from it. He wants to bring them in, especially the younger people. And analysts looking at this feel like there's no one better perhaps than President Obama to appeal to those younger voters, and first of all, get them to vote at all, and now, get them to vote for Hillary Clinton. Jake --

TAPPER: Michelle Kosinski, thank you so much. And Dana, it is important to note and underline, President Obama, seeing himself as something of a peacemaker, somebody who can bring Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders together, that's one of the reasons why he has tried to stay out of the race as much as possible, not tipping the scales for either Clinton or Sanders. And he sees himself as somebody who Sanders supporters will listen to and Sanders supporters will -- they like him. They're young, they're independent, and they might appreciate him and they will listen to him when he says, OK, time to rally around Hillary Clinton. And as you and I have talked about a number of times, Dana, President Obama is so eager to get involved in this presidential race. He is so eager to go after Donald Trump and try to discredit Donald Trump.

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: No question. I thought it was really interesting the way that the White House phrased the idea that President Obama and Bernie Sanders are going to meet on Thursday, saying specifically, at Senator Sanders' request. You were sort of making fun of me that I might know something that I'm not saying. I didn't. I just suspected that this kind of thing was going to start to roll out when we heard that Bernie Sanders was coming back to D.C., and to me, that statement from the White House signals that they are hoping that Sanders comes to the White House as sort of the beginning of the end of his campaign to try to start to unravel it. He is also going to the hill. Our Manu Raju is reporting that he is also going to meet with the Senate Democratic leader, Bernie Sanders. So all of those things combined, looks like he's getting towards the end of what Patty was talking about, the sort of stages of grief.

TAPPER: Maybe he will bring them to unity in New Hampshire, where Hillary and Obama got together eight years ago. Let's bring in CNN politics executive editor, Mark Preston, who can tell us more about Hillary Clinton and her quest for delegates. Mark --

MARK PRESTON, CNN POLITICS EXECUTIVE EDITOR: Yes, Jake, well I tell you what, talk about pressure building up on Bernie Sanders to get out of the race. Of course, we've seen this meeting will take place with President Barack Obama on Thursday. Last night, we projected that Hillary Clinton would become the presumptive Democratic nominee based upon the delegates that she won, the pledged delegates that she won, added together with the super delegates. But tonight we can make another projection. This projection is that she will have won a majority of the pledged delegates.

[00:04:56] We are making this calculation based upon the numbers we are seeing out of California in addition to the states that she has already won tonight, Jake, so quite a milestone for Hillary Clinton who just eight years ago had lost the Democratic nomination to Barack Obama, and yet another sign, perhaps, that Bernie Sanders might have to abandon his bid for the Democratic nomination. Jake --

TAPPER: Mark Preston, thank you so much. This is a significant milestone, because the Sanders campaign, up until recently, was saying that whoever wins the majority of pledged delegates should be the nominee, that super delegates should not go against the will of the pledged delegates. These are the ones that are elected in caucuses and primaries. Recently, however, they have changed their tune. They have been talking more about super delegates, almost undoing the will of pledged delegates. Big, big achievement for Hillary Clinton.

BASH: Because super delegates don't matter right now. No matter where they go, if she wins the majority of the pledged delegates, those that are pledged based on the voting and the will of the people, as you say, as he says, then that is the ball game. By Bernie Sanders' standards, never mind the Democratic party.

TAPPER: His standards two months ago. Not his standards currently.

BASH: And maybe more importantly -- I'm sure you're getting this on your Twitter feed, I am and others are -- Bernie Sanders supporters, and that's really what matters most here at this point to Hillary Clinton and to her viability and her ability to bring together the party and get those people behind her, because they can look and say, OK, she's won fair and square.

TAPPER: Anderson, super delegates were introduced to the Democratic Party process in 1982. Since then, they have never voted against the will of what the majority of pledged delegates want, and Hillary Clinton just won the majority of pledged delegates.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, which as you said, a major milestone for the Clinton campaign. It is remarkable -- we were talking about this during the break -- when you think about the pace that we have already seen in not only the primary battles but now in this general, and there are still months and months to go. It's more than a month before the convention.

DAVID AXELROD, FORMER OBAMA SENIOR ADVISER: A month ago, all the dominos fell, and Donald Trump stood a colossus astride the Republican universe and we were all -- and Hillary Clinton was struggling with Bernie Sanders and that was the discussion we were having around this table. Tonight, it's a good night for Hillary Clinton. But it is a reminder that this is a dynamic process. There are going to be a lot of turns and twists in this road between now and November.

COOPER: You just think about the last week, week and a half, you had Hillary Clinton coming out with what was billed as a foreign policy speech, really was a political speech going after Donald Trump using his own words against him. And then Donald Trump with his comments, which have been part of the news cycle. Now we understand Donald Trump is going to be giving some sort of a talk about the Clintons as early as Monday.

AXELROD: Well, we are a voracious group. I speak of us around this table. We need to fill a lot of time. We cover this constantly, and every event is treated as the defining event of the campaign. There are very few defining events in a campaign, but there is an awful lot of hysteria along the way. And if you're running a campaign, it's important to remember that and keep grounded on those days when you're being written off, keep grounded, and on those days when you're being lofted in the air on a rickshaw, you also have to keep --

COOPER: I was hoping by the conventions that Wolf and I will be able to get chairs.

(LAUGHTER)

COOPER: I wonder why we're the only ones around here who don't get chairs. That's all right. Next contract negotiation.

BORGER: I can give you mine. Just a couple of weeks ago, Republicans were coalescing around Donald Trump, trying to get to yes. He was the party nominee, they were going to support him. The last few days, they have been backing away from him because of the comments about the judge. You know, this takes on a dynamic of its own. But then you have a narrative that starts, and right now, what is starting is that these candidates are trying to define each other. And so Hillary says, he is unstable, and he says she's crooked. And then you have these ebbs and flows here, and one is up and one is down. And right now, this is a great week for Hillary and a not so great week for Donald Trump. But that can change.

AXELROD: You're right. The narratives that we have seen established now in the last couple of weeks I think are narratives that are going to be -- the difference between Republicans and Democrats, though, and we have seen it in the last few minutes, evidence itself, is that Democrats have a president who is broadly popular within the party who can help bring the party together. There is no such force in the Republican Party.

COOPER: Bakari Sellers, we haven't heard from you tonight -- how do you see President Obama making this endorsement? Does he come out with a speech? Does he make an appearance with Hillary Clinton?

[00:10:01] BAKARI SELLERS, CLINTON SUPPORTER: I think tonight, we saw a glimpse of what the Democratic Party is going to look like going forward. When you look at the Donald Trump speech, it was a good speech. We had a very low bar for Donald Trump, but it was a good speech. But then you saw all the pageantry. You saw all the emotion. You saw the music rocking, you saw the people swaying, people feeling as if they were invested in some historical moment, when Hillary Clinton gave her speech. I expect that same type of environment, whether or not it's later this week or next week, when the President stands on stage with Hillary Clinton.

There is no more dynamic political figure -- and I'm not just speaking as a Democrat, but in the entire United States of America, than Barack Obama. When Barack Obama's able to stand on that speech, when he's able to orate, when he's able to talk about not what this country was or what it is but what it can be, it's going to be valuable. But you also see the strengths of the Democratic Party. It's a team that's coalescing. We're not there yet, but they are coalescing. When you add Elizabeth Warren to that, when you add Uncle Joe Biden to that, when you add all of these different figures and then you're running against a group that's kind of like the bad news bears right now, they just can't quite get right, it looks like it's going to be a fun and eventful summer. KAYLEIGH MCENANY, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I have to disagree with

that, because here's the thing. Look, you are absolutely right that the President is a very powerful ally. He is immensely likeable. He has a lot of energy behind him as we saw in 2008. He has some energy behind him now. But there's also a lot that she'll have to answer for when she tethers herself to Barack Obama. For instance, the worst jobs report since 2010 last week. Food stamps are up. Healthcare costs are up. Double digit real unemployment for minorities and for young people. There are a lot of big -- wages stagnant. I could go on and on. The Middle East on fire. There are a lot of things she will have to answer for by virtue of tying herself to the President.

SELLERS: And I think one of the things that you see when you tie yourself to the President is, first and foremost, he's not going to be an albatross. This is going to be the first president to play a major role in the presidential election since George H.W. Bush, since Ronald Reagan did it for George H.W. Bush. But with that being said, Barack Obama -- I was 4.

(CROSSTALK)

Barack Obama built this coalition, this very important coalition. We saw that not once but twice. It got to 330 electoral votes. He saw that the world is changing, the country is changing. And with that coalition, Hillary Clinton is going to be able to win again if she's able to bring that out and build on it, and Barack Obama is the key to that.

MCENANY: But Hillary Clinton is the candidate at the end of the day. It's not president Obama. She is the candidate, and I have a hard time seeing millennials rallying around her. Millennials are the reason she lost Iowa essentially in 2008. She struggled repeatedly with millennials. I don't see them showing up in the same droves because she is the candidate and she does not have the same rallying force that Barack Obama had.

BILL PRESS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Whoa, whoa. I think there are two reasons why -- maybe three, actually, the millennials will come around. Number one is, Barack Obama himself. The millennials -- he's the first one that really attracted them, and that's why he won so big in 2008. The second is, Bernie Sanders. Bernie Sanders is going to keep this movement going tonight. You are going to hear that tonight. His determination to build this movement, to build this revolution. The first goal will be to rally behind Hillary Clinton and to stop Donald Trump. The millennials, Kayleigh, are just not going to support Donald Trump. And a third one is, Hillary Clinton herself. Once she's there and the nominee and what she's speaking for, the issues she's speaking for -- I've got to tell you, I am enjoying this moment so much because there's unity and love that's breaking out all over in the Democratic Party in contrast to the Republican Party. They can't even get their leaders to say they will endorse their nominee.

AXELROD: While these guys are hugging it out, let me say that -- on the Obama point, it is noteworthy that his approval numbers are fairly high right now and they've been so for months. We don't know where they will be in November, but right now, he is a pretty popular president, and that is an advantage to Hillary Clinton because he is going to try and play the same role that Bill Clinton played for Barack Obama in 2012, as the guy who is the kind of referee, the truth teller out there sorting out the arguments.

COOPER: There are so many unknowns on the Republican side. We don't know long-term how Donald Trump plays. The running mate, what the other Republican -- what more established Republican figures do. Anna, I know obviously you are not a Trump supporter --

ANA NAVARRO, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: You think?

COOPER: I've noticed. But I mean, it is a long time between now and election day and particularly on the Republican side where there isn't this unity that you see right now or getting toward there on the Democratic side.

NAVARRO: Here is the problem. This is cake is getting baked. We are past the point of giving Donald Trump a chance, a lot of us. I think for the last four weeks since he became the nominee, a lot of us thought, OK, at some point, this man is going to become presidential. At some point, he's going to start talking issues. At some point, he's going to become inclusive and build a bigger tent. At some point, we're going to feel welcomed somehow in some sort of Donald Trump campaign and administration.

[00:15:07] Instead, the opposite has happened. Hillary Clinton's not going to have to answer about job reports if he doesn't bring it up, if what he keeps doing is dividing America. And millennials, who hate labels -- there is no group in America that hates labels less -- more than millennials -- are not going to vote for somebody who labels people Muslims, Hispanics, Mexicans -- that's just not going to happen.

COOPER: Let's take a quick break. Coming up, will Hillary Clinton hold on to her lead in California? You see the numbers right there on the screen. Stand by for more votes and reactions from Bernie Sanders. We, of course, will carry his speech live.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: Hello. I'm John Vause. This is CNN NEWS NOW. The White House is condemning a bombing in Istanbul's tourist district that killed 11 people, including seven police officers. According to Turkish state media, four people connected to Tuesday's attack have been detained. Turkey's president says the bombing which targeted a police bus is unforgivable.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

RECEP TAYYIP ERDOGAN, PRESIDENT OF TURKEY (via translator): Let me tell you this very clearly, that the terrorist organization distinguishing between the police and civilians or between the soldiers and civilians does not make any difference for us. After all, they are all humans. What they have done is against humans. And what is the duty of our police, army, and village guards? To protect the safety of the whole nation and security of our people and their lives and property. These steps, the terror actions, are being taken against these people. So there is nothing forgivable about what they have done.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

VAUSE: France is getting security ready for the Euro 2016 Football Championship. The country held an exercise in Lyon Tuesday to prepare for a number of possible terror threats. The mock drill included a bomb attack, armed gunmen, and emergency response teams at the city's fan zones where thousands are expected to watch the matches. A military spokesman says Iraqi forces are making advances in the fight to retake Fallujah from ISIS. He tells Reuters that progress has slowed slightly as the forces try to clear explosives and rescue civilians trapped in the city.

Heavy flooding is forcing evacuations in one of Australia's oldest cities in the state of Tasmania. At least four people have been killed across the country. In Sydney, erosion from the biggest high tide of the year is endangering multi-million dollar homes along Collaroy Becah. That's your CNN NEWS NOW. Our special Super Tuesday U.S. election coverage continues next. You're with CNN, the world's news leader. We're standing by to hear from Democrat Bernie Sanders.

[00:19:55] BLITZER: Welcome back. Let's get another key race alert right now. California, 32 percent of the vote is in. Hillary Clinton's lead expanding. Right now she has 62.2 percent to Bernie Sanders' 36.6 percent. She is ahead right now, look at this, by almost 400,000 votes, 386,635 to be specific, but almost 400,000 vote lead with a third of the vote in in California. That's a very, very impressive lead for Hillary Clinton over Bernie Sanders in California right now. The polls going into the show showing it was supposed to be neck in neck. If this holds, not necessarily neck and neck. In Montana right now, half of the vote is in. It is neck and neck in Montana -- 48.2 percent for Bernie Sanders. He has taken a slight lead over Hillary Clinton, 47.1 percent. Bernie Sanders now has the lead in Montana by 895 votes. Until now, Hillary Clinton was slightly ahead of Bernie Sanders in Montana. He now takes a slight lead over Hillary Clinton in Montana.

So far tonight, four contests have been projected. Hillary Clinton has won three of them. Bernie Sanders has won one. Hillary Clinton has won New Jersey, New Mexico, and South Dakota. Bernie Sanders so far has won North Dakota. We're standing by to hear from Bernie Sanders. We're really anxious to get the sense, the tone. Will he go ahead and concede? Will he go ahead and continue to fight? Stand by. We will have live coverage of his speech coming up from Santa Monica, California. Meantime, let's go over to John King, take a close look at California right now. That's a very impressive lead she has right now. All the polls showed it was supposed to be one or two or three percent. If this holds, those polls were clearly wrong.

JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: There one was pole in the final week among likely voters that had Secretary Clinton with a ten-point lead. Nowhere in the ballpark of that. But there was one poll of likely voters that did say it was at about ten points. You're looking at this, and again, under normal circumstances, you would see this and you would say, OK, game over. We can call this state. But this is a large state. Obviously, the biggest state in the country. And you had a significant early vote or absentee vote by mail. So now, what do you do? You get that results first, you look at it. Obviously, Secretary Clinton has an overwhelming, commanding lead there. Then you want some more votes to come in from today, election day, and see if they at least are roughly in that ballpark or show you that the margins aren't enough for Senator Sanders to overcome.

So where are we? You look down in San Diego County, this was zero a little while ago. It's up to 12 percent now, meaning we're getting the election day vote in. At the moment, she's holding a consistent lead there as you go. Then you come in here, this is the most important county. We will look at it a lot, Los Angeles County. Again ,more than 26 percent of the state population, a big chunk of the Democratic vote in the state comes right out of here. Up to eight percent. Remember last time we looked, just a few minutes ago, it was zero percent. It was all early absentee ballots. We're starting to get some of today's votes, 65 percent to 33 percent. If it holds anywhere in that margin, anywhere close to that, it will be very difficult for Senator Sanders to overcome the statewide lead she has right now.

You start to look in other places, you move up to here, Santa Clara County, San Jose, again, up to 21 percent. That's a whopping lead right there. Then you keep coming up. You come to more liberal areas. You come up here -- let's come in on San Francisco. Starting, (ph) Costa county, 66. Move over here, San Francisco County, 62 percent. But see, we're still -- this is one of the reasons you wait. This is only -- you think of San Francisco as a major city, it is, but it's only 2.2 percent of the state population. So Senator Sanders would have to come back with the day votes, very big up there. So if you look at the map right now as it's filling in, we want to wait, we want to get above 32 percent. That's pretty daunting. It's not impossible, but that's a pretty daunting mathematical possibility for Senator Sanders. So if you pull this out, we should -- as you just pointed out, I want to point it out again, because earlier we were showing Secretary Clinton was narrowly ahead in Montana, it is now Senator Sanders narrowly ahead in Montana. So leading in Montana, he has won North Dakota, she's won New Jersey, New Mexico, and South Dakota, and this is it. This is the final prize. If the Clinton campaign can hold on to this, as was being discussed earlier, this was the trophy Bernie Sanders wanted to say, in the biggest, the most diverse state, the most populous state, the Democratic Party's anchor in national politics, 50 plus electoral votes, I won it at the end, super delegates should give me a second look.

BLITZER: You take a look at it, it's almost 400,000 votes -- she's ahead by almost 400,000 votes. With a third of the vote in, that's going to be really hard to overcome an advantage like that.

KING: I think the word is miracle. It would be a mathematical miracle. And even if he comes back, don't expect this to be the final margin. If it is the final margin, that is as big, bold faced, underlined, exclamation point as you can get in presidential politics to end with a win like that in California would be wow. But, it tells you that, A, Hillary Clinton has got a big lead. That's going to be very difficult to overcome. And if Senator Sanders comes back, this is -- he's not going to get what he wanted in California, which was a big, convincing win as a trophy. And if you look at the map right now, if you are a betting man, you are expecting she's going to stay on top in California. Not by that margin probably, but that's a healthy lead.

[00:25:04] BLITZER: It certainly is. All right, John, stand by. We're going to get back to the magic wall. I want to go over to Jake and Dana. It helps to explain this impressive lead that she has in California and why the President of the United States just a little while ago issued a statement. The President congratulated Secretary Clinton for securing the delegates necessary to clinch the Democratic nomination for president of the United States. As far as President Obama is concerned, it's over.

TAPPER: And with hundreds and hundreds of super delegates having endorsed her, plus, of course, the majority of pledged delegates, the earned delegates, you need 2,026 to be the majority of pledged delegates, she has already earned 2,039, it is a momentous night for former secretary of state Hillary Clinton. The big question now of course, what happens next, what will Senator Bernie Sanders do? Let's go to Brianna Keilar who is with the Sanders Campaign. And Brianna, we're expecting a big speech from Senator Sanders this evening. He is the only candidate of the three left who has yet to speak. The world awaits. His words, what do you hear he's going to say?

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, we're expecting him in about a half hour or so dale:s. She has ear the big question now, of course, what happens next? What will so, and it is unclear what he is going to say at this point. Obviously, he took a phone call from President Obama, but I want to give you a sense of the crowd here and why it's really emblematic of the struggle and perhaps the impossible feat that Hillary Clinton has in winning over some of these stalwart Bernie Sanders supporters. This crowd has been cheering when they see photos of Bernie Sanders. They saw the North Dakota results, the projection come in. They cheered for that. But when the early results have been coming in from California that show Bernie Sanders trailing Hillary Clinton, they have been yelling B.S., and not using an acronym. And they have been booing when they saw President Obama on some of the networks had called Hillary Clinton.

So Bernie Sanders, even though he has been stressing that he is going to push all the way to the convention and will be waiting to see if that's something he repeats again tonight or not, he has also been saying that he wants to unify the party. He wants there to be a unification between his supporters and Secretary Clinton's supporters. But it just goes to show you, there are many people in this crowd who will not be satisfied unless Bernie Sanders is Hillary Clinton's running mate, and even then, Jake, many of them have said they will not support Hillary Clinton even if she were to choose Bernie Sanders for the ticket.

TAPPER: The Bernie or bust movement is very strong. It's unclear how many people who are supporters of Bernie Sanders believe that if he does not get the nomination, they will not vote for Hillary Clinton. Right now, Bernie Sanders is in California as he trails Hillary Clinton in the primary. What will he say to supporters about the vote, about Clinton, about the future of his campaign? We're going to find out soon. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:31:31] WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Let's get another key race alert right now. California, the biggest prize of the night -- 32 percent, about a third of the vote is now in. Hillary Clinton has an impressive lead over Bernie Sanders. Once again, nearly 400,000 vote lead over Bernie Sanders right now, 62.2 percent, 36.6 percent for Bernie Sanders. She's winning, look at this, 394,764 votes. That's a very impressive lead right now. We will see if that holds. In Montana, the only other state that has not yet been projected, 52 percent of the vote is in. Very, very close. Bernie Sanders has now taken a slight lead over Hillary Clinton. He has 48.1 percent to 47.1 percent for Hillary Clinton. He is ahead, Senator Sanders, by 806 votes in Montana right now, 21 delegates at stake in Montana, 475 delegates at stake in California. We're waiting for Bernie Sanders to speak. This is going to be an important speech for Bernie Sanders. We'll have live coverage. We will hear what he has to say. We'll hear if he concedes, if he vows to continue on fighting. We're going to get some reaction from Bernie Sanders directly. We'll have live coverage of his speech. Stay with us for that. This could be an historic speech by the Vermont senator. Let's go over to Jake and Dana as we await the senator. This speech -- I don't know if he's going to concede or not concede, but if he's not doing well in California, Jake, I don't know what rationale he will have to keep on fighting.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: It's tough. It's a tough position to be in. First of all, we should not overstate or we cannot overstate how much he thinks that Secretary Clinton is an embodiment of the problems he sees in the Democratic Party. Not personal to her, necessarily, but he sees the Democratic Party as a party that has sold out to Wall Street, that has -- now remember, he was an independent --

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Some of it is personal to her.

TAPPER: Some of it is personal to her, sure, in terms of specific things, such as her giving speeches to Goldman Sachs, but more than that, I think, he sees the Democratic Party as a party that needs to get back to what it once was or what it could be. I don't know if it ever really was that other than maybe during the McGovern years, but he sees this as potentially a loss not just to this person about -- on this campaign, but the fact that this is a battle, a fight that he thinks is important for the country that he has lost.

BASH: Absolutely. But he still has a lot of cards to play and those cards are his supporters. Obviously, they're not just drones -- they're not going to just go and do whatever he tells them to do, but he has obviously a lot of influence with them. So that's why what he talks about with not just President Obama but with the Democratic leader, his fellow Senate Democratic leader this coming week, is going to be fascinating. I'm just pulling up here a note that I got from a source familiar with the meeting that Bernie Sanders is going to have with Harry Reid and that is that Sanders told Reid that he appreciates all the support he has offered him through the process. He has not told Reid what to expect in terms of the outcome of this meeting and Reid did not press, meaning, he didn't say, I'm coming in and I'm going to drop out and I'm going to need to you do X, Y, and Z in order to get my supporters. But made it pretty clear, I'm coming with an important discussion that we have to have.

[00:34:57] TAPPER: We also cannot overstate how important it is that secretary of state Hillary Clinton gets those supporters to her campaign, because she needs that enthusiasm. She has had more votes, but she has not had that enthusiasm. She has not had the young people in the numbers that he has had them. And also, quite frankly, she's not doing well with independent voters and Bernie Sanders does do well with independent voters, so in order for her to go forward and be successful, she really needs him to be on board and what he says tonight could be very, very important going forward.

BASH: Right. It will be a very important sign for us and for his supporters on where he is headed next. I mean, we know that he's going back to Vermont. He is going to finish out the process in the primary here in D.C. next Tuesday. And you know, definitely the tone and the tenor tonight, my suspicion is going to be a big thank you and a big, look at all we have accomplished, without saying good-bye. But the bottom line at the end of the day is, he has to really figure out what he wants to come away with in order to be the guy who is going to join forces with Hillary Clinton, be the guy who is going to do what she did eight years ago and tell her people, you know what, it's time for us to get together.

TAPPER: And Anderson, when I spoke with Bernie Sanders just a few days ago, he actually was more critical of Secretary Clinton than he had been recently going so far as to criticize the Clinton Foundation. When I asked him about criticisms of the foundation, he started talking about issues he had, which is a real sign that for him, this is not over, at least in his heart and in his head.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: And we're certainly going to hear more about that from Donald Trump coming up next week. I think he said probably by Monday, although he wasn't 100 percent sure it would be on Monday. He said he's going to be making a major address about the Clintons. It's one of the biggest nights, certainly, of the 2016 presidential campaign, a night for the history books. Hillary Clinton will now lead the Democrats into the general election. She says the victory belongs to generations who struggled and sacrificed.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It may be hard to see tonight, but we are all standing under a glass ceiling right now. But don't worry. We're not smashing this one. Thanks to you, we have reached a milestone. The first time -- the first time in our nation's history that a woman will be a major party's nominee.

(CHEERING)

(END AUDIO CLIP)

TAPPER: Let's talk about where the campaigns are right now, just in terms of the search for vice president, which is obviously one of the next major decisions both candidates have to make. Where do you think they are? Traditionally, I assume they have already begun vetting people, they are already looking at people seriously. What is that process?

AXELROD: Well, you know, back in 2008, there were 30 candidates under consideration by Senator Obama.

COOPER: Thirty?

AXELROD: He really identified Biden early as a guy who he was interested in, but there was a long process of vetting and discussion --

COOPER: How many people are involved in something like that?

AXELROD: Not that many. There were a team of lawyers who were doing the vetting, within the campaign it was a pretty closely held process, and that's, I'm sure true, certainly in the Clinton campaign. I honestly don't know how the Trump vice presidential process will be run.

COOPER: Jeffrey, did you hear this?

LORD: A.P. Kuldehouse (ph), who was the White House counsel for Ronald Reagan when I was in the White House --

AXELROD: And he did it for McCain when the McCain picked Sarah Palin.

(CROSSTALK)

NAVARRO: That went well.

LORD: You are so determined.

He has done this a lot. He is what we would call today the sort of the wise head here, who is the establishment guy who takes over one of these roles like I think -- wasn't Jim Johnson supposed to do that for --

AXELROD: Yes. And it was Eric Holder, Caroline Kennedy --

LORD: Right, exactly.

So A.B. (ph) fits exactly --

COOPER: We know what Donald Trump has said publicly, he is looking for somebody with congressional experience who can kind of help him on that. Hillary Clinton, I mean, the times I have seen her, I think I asked her once, others have asked her -- she usually gives the standard line which Donald Trump has actually kind of mocked her for, which is like that whoever it is, she wants somebody who can obviously step into -- AXELROD: Right. But he shouldn't mock her for that because that is

--

COOPER: Well obviously, that's a crucially important --

[00:39:53] SELLERS: That is the role of the vice president, to be able to be president on day one, but I think that Hillary Clinton -- and I'm hopeful that Hillary Clinton and her team in Brooklyn are going to find somebody who is dynamic, somebody who adds diversity to the ticket, but who also has that progressive streak, somebody who can also go out and talk to Bernie Sanders' supporters.

COOPER: How much is the map important -- depending what state he or she is from?

SELLERS: I don't think -- I think that game of get somebody from a state that you need to win is somewhat out the window.

BORGER: I don't think so.

SELLERS: If I had to throw a few names out there -- I don't think that's the case any longer. But the President went and got Joe Biden. That wasn't to make up Delaware.

AXELROD: There was some thought about Pennsylvania, but that was just -- that was an ancillary benefit. That wasn't the main --

SELLERS: That wasn't the main reason.

BORGER: It has to be a personal thing, too. When Barack Obama went through it -- you know this better than anybody -- it has to be somebody you have a personal sense of comraderIE with and you share policy ideas and you think you can see this person every single day and deal with them in a way that --

AXELROD: So I would say their relationship -- they became very close, but it grew. It was not -- it was a strained relationship.

BORGER: But also -- I will say, with the A.B. Kuldeouse (ph) thing and Sarah Palin, she was kind of thrown into the mix very late because McCain wanted Joe Lieberman. Everybody told him, you can't have Joe Lieberman, the party will go crazy. And then Sarah Palin was thrown in and she wasn't vetted the way that all the other candidates had been vetted. That became an issue for them.

NAVARRO: In the McCain case, and I think we have to look at that when it comes to Hillary Clinton, is -- look at them as their personalities, their character. John McCain might be 75 years old, but he will always be a 20-year-old navy pilot who flies too fast and too close to the electric lines. He took a risk with Sarah Palin. He felt he needed a wow factor.

I think Hillary Clinton plays it safe. I think she does want somebody who she thinks is ready on day one. Donald Trump I have absolutely no idea what the hell he wants. PRESS: I think there's another factor. I just want to say, the

geographic thing I think went out with Bill Clinton and Al Gore. Two white boys from the South. But I think there's another important factor for Hillary Clinton, is in the Sanders camp, there's still a lot of people who don't trust Hillary because they don't think she's a real progressive. She has taken some of these positions, maybe they're not really hers. I think she will pick somebody with strong --

AXELROD: This is the choice.

PRESS: -- strong progressive credentials who will help rally the Sanders supporters.

AXELROD: Does she go for a candidate like Elizabeth Warren, for example, who tremendous--

PRESS: Or a Sherrod Brown.

AXELROD: The problem with that is, there's a Republican governor in Ohio and I think --

(CROSSTALK)

AXELROD: But here's the thing. When McCain picked Sarah Palin, I was the one who told Senator Obama that that was the pick, and he said, that's really interesting, and he went through all these things in his head. He said, but this is what I know. I was a lousy candidate for six months. Running for president, running for vice president is a crazy, pressureful thing. And she may be the greatest politician since Ronald Reagan, be thrown in here and do well with this kind of pressure, but I give it about four weeks. And four weeks later, she did that interview with Katie Couric. I think that the first thing you need do is look for someone who can stand up to the pressure of a national campaign.

COOPER: We have got to take a break. Coming up, we're waiting for Bernie Sanders to speak. We will find out if Sanders offers an olive branch to Hillary Clinton on this momentous night, for the presumptive Democratic nominee. We're closing in on Sanders' critical speech.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: All right, let's get another key race alert right now. Let's go to California first. California, the biggest prize of the night, 475 delegates at stake. Hillary Clinton maintaining a very impressive lead over Bernie Sanders in California right now with about a third of the vote in. She has 62.2 percent to Bernie Sanders' 36.7 percent. It's been roughly like that for a while now. She's ahead by almost 400,000 votes. She has 950,809 votes to Bernie Sanders' 561,444. A very impressive lead so far for Hillary Clinton over Bernie Sanders in California with a third of the vote in. Let's see if that holds. In Montana, Bernie Sanders is building up his lead a little bit. He is now at 48.7 percent to her 46.7 percent. He is up by 1,600 votes. He has 40,611 votes in Montana. Hillary Clinton has 38,932. More than half of the vote is in, 56 percent of the vote is in, 21 delegates at stake in Montana. We're waiting to hear from Bernie Sanders. Bernie Sanders getting ready to deliver a speech out in California. We will have live coverage of that. Anderson, a lot of us are wondering, the tone -- what is he going to say, especially if this setback he is facing in California holds up?

COOPER: Yes, no doubt a lot of people in the crowd there waiting to hear their candidate are wondering that as well. We will bring those comments to you live. Let's take a look at comments Donald Trump made, stuck in a controversy of his own making after his attacks on a judge for his Mexican heritage. Donald Trump took a measured tone tonight until he got to the subject of Hillary Clinton. Watch.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I am going to give a major speech on probably Monday of next week and we're going to be discussing all of the things that have taken place with the Clintons. I think you're going to find it very informative and very, very interesting.

Recent polls have shown that I'm beating Hillary Clinton, and with all of her many problems and the tremendous mistakes that she has -- and she has made tremendous mistakes -- we expect our lead to continue to grow and grow substantially.

They have made hundreds of millions of dollars selling access, selling favors, selling government contracts. And I mean hundreds of millions of dollars. Secretary Clinton even did all of the work on a totally illegal private server. Hillary Clinton turned the State Department into her private hedge fund. The Russians, the Saudis, the Chinese, all gave money to Bill and Hillary and got favorable treatment in return. The last thing we need is Hillary Clinton in the White House or an extension of the Obama disaster.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

COOPER: And there you have it. So those comments will be from Donald Trump on Monday. I guess, Jeffrey Lord, Kayleigh, as Trump supporters, this is a response by Donald Trump to Hillary Clinton's speech which was supposed to be a foreign policy speech which was really kind of a point by point attack on Donald Trump based on his --

[00:49:59] JEFFREY LORD, TRUMP SUPPORTER: What he is going to do without a doubt -- and again, this goes to some of the concern that people in the base had about our Republican nominees in the past not going -- not playing hard ball -- the Democrats play hard ball with us and we just more or less turn the other cheek and get stuck with binders full of women and all of this kind of thing and killing a steel worker's wife, that sort of stuff, and not responding and going after the other side. So he is going to play hard ball here. There's just no question about it. And so will the Clintons who are well- known for doing it.

So I really do expect -- somewhere I do believe I saw that he had lunch in a public setting somewhere with Ed Klein, the famous author of books on President Obama and Hillary Clinton and the Clintons and all of this sort of thing. And I would suspect -- I don't know this, but I would suspect he's probably read "Clinton Cache" and is going to talk about -- since Trump University is in the news, there's a university that Bill Clinton was -- a for profit that he was chancellor of that had some controversy to it. So I imagine he is going to toss just about as much of that, including the kitchen sink, in there because he feels this is the way you go after these folks, because if you don't, they're going to go after you.

DONNA BRAZILE, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Anderson, he's going to talk loud and say nothing. That's Donald Trump. He likes to insult. He likes to smack people around. He likes to essentially throw out every piece of slime, whether it's true or false, because he understands that that makes news and then we'll come on television and re-litigate or regurgitate what Donald Trump says. Look, that strategy worked I think in the primary. That enabled him to defeat 16 very well qualified candidates. I don't think that will help him in the fall get the kind of support that he needs from a very diverse electorate that will allow him to win what I believe, the presidency of the United States. So as far as I'm concerned, give him all the microphones, give him some caffeinated whatever, let him talk loud, because he's going to say nothing.

SELLERS: To Donna's point, the reason that I can come on TV and we can all say that Donald Trump's speech tonight was good or decent is because Donald Trump himself in politics has created a culture of low expectation. The bar is set so low for him. And he got eviscerated in San Diego when Hillary Clinton gave that speech, and he still hasn't responded to it. He still has not responded to it. I don't know what campaign has someone go out and verbally with prose eviscerate you, you send out one tweet, and you still don't respond. She has knocked Donald Trump so far off his game that Donald Trump was reading off teleprompters tonight. His campaign has been in shambles since that moment. That's going to be a moment that we remember. And so yes, we can look forward to his speech on Monday, but his speech on Monday is going to be -- my mom read it, she went every week and got "The National Enquirer". Like every week, my mom got "The National Enquirer". That is what this speech is going to be.

LORD: If Donald Trump is going to be accused -- is being accused of having a temperament problem, the corresponding charge that's coming back is a judgment problem with Hillary Clinton. All the way from the earliest Clinton scandals, quote unquote, Whitewater and all this, all the way up to Benghazi, the e-mails, everything, that they all have the same problem is that her fingerprints get on these things that things get screwed up and there are lies and there are untruths, et cetera --

NAVARRO: Let me ask this entire table -- does anybody here think that Donald Trump actually wants to debate policy? Foreign policy or domestic policy with Hillary Clinton? This is his play book. He is doubling down on his formula that has worked for him until now. He is in his comfort zone. He is happy there. He has been effective.

MCENANY: She has been on the wrong side of every major foreign policy decision in the last probably ten years. So yes, absolutely he wants to debate her on this, because he will highlight all of those things and contrary to what --

NAVARRO: He had four weeks to debate policy.

MCENANY: What he's going to lay out on Monday is not going to be "National Enquirer" stories. There is a reason that the American people distrust Hillary Clinton to the tune of 60 percent. They didn't just wake up one day and distrust her because of something they saw in "The National Enquirer". They distrust her because of the litany of things, from the Clinton Foundation to Benghazi to the e- mail situation to the new secret service book about to come out by Gary Byrne who stood outside Bill Clinton's office --

MCENANY: -- last point out there. In addition to the judgment problem, I would also argue that there's a temperament problem because that's what the secret service agent is going to come out and say in two weeks the book comes out, and he is going to say what he saw standing in front of Bill Clinton's oval office for eight years. That's going to be a very powerful book and account of what it is like --

SELLERS (?): "The National Enquirer" tell all.

NAVARRO: Let me just tell you something. I know you are very young, but if your husband were cheating on you in the White House, would you be screaming the hell out of him, too.

[00:55:00] MCENANY: It has nothing to do with cheating. It has nothing to do with cheating!

(LAUGHTER)

(CROSSTALK)

NAVARRO (?): That's what the secret service guy said!

(CROSSTALK)

COOPER: Guys, guys! No one listens when you are all talking. It's like we have gone on four eight hours, it gets annoying. One at a time.

PRESS: One thing, picking up with what Bakari said -- what's more telling to me was that nobody in Donald Trump's party picked up to respond to Hillary Clinton's speech because they couldn't. Because what she was saying about Donald Trump, he is reckless. His talk about nukes to Japan and nukes so South Korea or meeting with the head of North Korea or using tactical weapons in the field is dangerous stuff, and that is -- no, the difference was that her speech was a very substantive speech about foreign policy. His response --

COOPER: Well, it wasn't really about foreign policy. It was really a point by point attack on Donald Trump. It was billed as foreign policy. PRESS: It was not personal insults. My point is, he responds by

personal insults just like he did tonight. And I have to tell you, the Clintons have been around 1992. If you think that all those Clinton scandals are going to win this election, you are just wrong.

COOPER: We're going to take another break. We expect Bernie Sanders to speak in California any moment. His remarks could make it easier or more difficult for Hillary Clinton to unite Democrats. Stay with us. We will be right back.